Eating less meat wont save the planet heres why

Mindless consumption will ruin us all

Netflix documentaries such as Cowspiracy, What the Health, and The Game Changers made me weep.

I vowed never to eat meat again. And in the following months, I continued researching how damaging animal husbandry is for animals, ourselves, and the planet. By the time 2021 rolled in, my most important New Year’s resolution was to eradicate animal-derived products from my diet.

That began my quest to drastically reduce my animal intake, become more mindful about where animal products come from, and evangelize about why animal farming is evil.

But then an acquaintance shared with me an intriguing video: “Eating Less Meat Won’t Save the Planet.”

When I finished watching it, I liked the video and subscribed to the channel. Here’s why:

Eating less meat won’t save the planet

The video’s title alone made me furious.

I had consumed so much information condemning animal farming I couldn’t believe anyone would dare defend something so damaging for everyone involved. I immediately assumed this had to be a channel funded by the industry itself in a sad attempt to combat bad publicity.

I went in, fully expecting to scoff and roll my eyes at every argument.

But I didn’t.

Citing relevant studies and experts, the video doesn’t waste time on badmouthing environmentalists who are charging against intensive animal farming. Instead, it centers on explaining why animal husbandry is necessary.

Though I felt uncomfortable watching it, the video taught me many eye-opening facts I wouldn’t have otherwise learned, like:

• You can’t just grow vegetables everywhere. Almost two-thirds of the world’s available land is non-arable, which means nothing but cattle can be raised there. Should we ignore all this land when we have billions of mouths to feed?
• Livestock makes the whole food system more efficient as they can transform something unedible for us into food. Moreover, even residues produced by the plant-based industry can be consumed by cattle and turned into meat.
• The biggest challenge we’re facing nowadays when it comes to feeding the increasing population is food waste. More than a third of the food produced is discarded. If we could reduce this, we could feed the increasing population without needing to increase production of any kind.
• The transportation and manufacturing businesses are way worse than animal husbandry for the planet.

The video goes into length about these points and more, but I’m not here to convince you that eating less meat won’t save the planet.

The biggest lesson the video taught me is that we need to hear every side of a story.

“There are two sides to every story” is a cliche for a reason

Despite the video, I’m still planning to maintain my mostly vegetarian diet (although I won’t go full vegan). And the few animal products I consume will continue to come from nearby, cruelty-free farms.

I still can’t condone the animal torture carried out in massive farms. I still believe that a mainly vegetarian diet is better for my health, as that’s the diet the blue zones (places where people are extraordinarily long-lived) primarily follow. And I still believe that even though the manufacturing and transportation industries are worse than animal husbandry, reducing my carbon footprint in every way is better than saying, “Hey, there are worse things, so I’m okay doing what I do.”

Still, the video has changed my perspective.

Now I’m more understanding of the farmers who’ve spent their lives raising cattle and the people who’ll never agree to become vegetarian or vegan. Now I’ve realized there are millions of shades of grey between carnivores and vegans, something activists like Amy Quichiz are fighting for as extreme Western veganism often requires some degree of privilege. Sometimes, people aren’t fully vegan because they can’t — and they shouldn’t be shamed or called hypocrites.

It’s people like Amy and videos like the one I saw that taught me of the other side I was missing because I’d fallen prey to one of the biggest problems of social media: radicalization.

As Netflix’s documentary, The Social Dilemma, explained in 2020, any algorithm will learn what content we lean toward and deliver it to us, creating a sense of truth that is incomplete.

Because I was so keen on learning more about the horrors of animal husbandry, my social media feeds kept providing more of the same content, making me believe that this was the only and absolute truth.

Now, I’m not saying that everything animal activists have said is wrong — but that it’s only part of the story. And it doesn’t take a genius to know that we shouldn’t make life-changing decisions or condemn others without knowing the full picture.

Worse, by having an intolerant mindset, we only push away those who think differently, making them more entrenched in their beliefs and making a solution to our problems near impossible. After all, how can we reach a compromise that minimizes animal torture and the damage to the planet while feeding the growing population if we’re not working together as a society?

Divided, our problems, including climate change, will only worsen. Regardless of where we ultimately fall on the spectrum of pro- or anti-meat eating, it’ll benefit us all to understand both sides of the story.

Mindless consumption will ruin the planet

Our world is facing terribly complex problems. Climate change isn’t as easily solvable as eliminating animal husbandry. It requires a systemic change in the way we do everything and an individual effort to try to improve our daily choices.

One of those choices involves avoiding mindless consumption.

Social media algorithms will give us what we want, so we need to take an active stance to avoid becoming intolerant of those who think differently just because they’re consuming other types of content.

If, like me, you lean toward a more anti-animal husbandry worldview, subscribe to a YouTube channel that discusses the opposite view in a reasonable way. Conversely, if you’re fed up with vegans telling you what to do and refuse to eliminate meat from your diet, at least consider reading from the point of view of someone like Amy Quichiz or trying to eat meat sustainably for a week to see how it works for you.

In other words, no matter your current beliefs, examine them to determine which are becoming one-sided and make an effort of studying the other side even if it’s uncomfortable. It’ll make you more tolerant of others and hopefully help you arrive at a decision you’ll never regret.

Eating less meat may or may not save the planet, but mindless consumption of radicalizing content will certainly bring ruin.

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